Red Bulls coach Hans Backe has found success now after bouncing around Europe

Ron Cheno/US PresswireRed Bulls coach Hans Backe has found success and stability with the club after bouncing around in Europe.

Hans Backe’s face is flush. The sun is nearly at full stretch in the clear sky above as the Red Bulls practice below, and its unblinking gaze seems focused directly on the coach’s forehead. Against his chalky hair, and the green of the field behind him, the deepening tan becomes all the more distinct.

His players, on this July afternoon, shuttle in front of him, tapping the ball to one another in a game of keep-away.

“Come on, guys. Keep going. I am the official here, I tell you when to stop,” Backe said, his Swedish accent adding syncopated stress every couple syllables.

When Backe was named Red Bulls coach in January 2010, he was an unknown and uncertain commodity. Since, he has transformed the club on the field with regimented precision.

Under Backe’s watch, each practice builds toward a mastery of the team’s tactical system, based on individual technical ability with a focus on defensive cohesiveness. The coach’s communication skills have engendered loyalty and respect in the locker room and helped bring a sense of stability to a franchise characterized more by its absence.

Already Backe has won more regular-season MLS games than all but two of the franchise’s previous 11 coaches, five of whom have coached in the World Cup. In his first season with the club, Backe lifted a team that finished worst in MLS in 2009, to the second Eastern Conference title in franchise history. In June, Backe was named coach of the MLS All-Stars for Wednesday’s matchup against Manchester United at Red Bull Arena, increasing his imprint on the league.

“The sense of respect for him is very evident by the way you see players react to him,” said Mike Petke, a player with the franchise for eight years before retiring to join the Red Bulls coaching staff this season. “He’s the type of guy who doesn’t have to yell, doesn’t have to holler. Just from where he’s been, from how he’s changed this team — from how he came into 2010 from a horrible 2009 season — just the simplicity that he breaks the game down with, he wins your respect right away.”

Backe characterized himself as a “hard worker” during his playing career as a central midfielder and defender in Sweden in the 1970s. After it concluded, Backe landed a coaching job with Djurgärden, a Stockholm-based club, in 1982. Backe’s coaching mark was exemplary in Sweden and in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Hans is a very famous name in Scandinavia,” said Jan Halvor Halvorsen, who coached in Norway and Sweden for 14 years before joining the Red Bulls as Backe’s top assistant prior to this season, “because he has coached in Europe for so many years.”

But his positions leading up to the Red Bulls appointment were largely unsuccessful.

Greek club Panathinakos fired him three games into the league season in 2006. After joining Manchester City and the Mexico national team as Sven-Göran Eriksson’s top assistant for unimpressive runs, Backe quit Notts County, in England’s third tier, seven weeks into a three-year contract after a dispute over the club’s finances.

When sporting director Erik Soler asked Backe if he was interested in the vacant job in December 2009, both Backe and the Red Bulls found each other looking for a fresh start.

“In a way it was a challenge and a good (thing) to start from zero, if that’s what you want to call it, after a very, very rough season to just start to build something,” Backe said. “I like to do it that way, try to organize a team from the foundation — to build a foundation.”

At the time of Backe’s hiring, no foreign coach — no matter his success abroad — had ever won an MLS Cup title (Gary Smith has since done so, with Colorado in 2010).

Mike Stobe/Getty Images for New York Red BullsHans Backe has successfully transformed the Red Bulls' style of play, focusing on fitness and technical ability.

Soler, a Norwegian who had been on the job for a month, gambled by choosing Backe. Neither was familiar with MLS, but they hypothesized that a style of play influenced by their time in Scandinavia would work in America. They wanted to fuse organization at the back with a free-flowing attacking style up front, demanding technical ability and fitness from players.

During a three-week training session in La Manga on Spain’s southeast coast in the 2010 preseason, Backe rigorously drilled the squad. Using predominantly the same players who won just five times in 2009, he reformed the style of play and restored confidence.

“He didn’t come in and try to re-invent the wheel, which a lot of coaches around this league do — when there’s a coaching change the whole team is overhauled, new this, new that,” Petke said.

The Red Bulls matched their win total from 2009 in Backe’s first six games. On Oct. 21, they clinched the Eastern Conference.

“To sit back at the end of last year … and say, ‘How could these same players be here and we won seven games the year before and we’re Eastern Conference champs this year?’ ” Petke said. “And it’s one thing: It’s the system that was brought in. It’s the stability and professionalism — them from Day 1 getting in our head saying, ‘This is how we’re going to play.’”

Backe’s tactical system transformed the Red Bulls on the field, but the team’s success was equally due to his ability to relate to players.

“The one thing I’ve always given him respect for is that when my career was coming to an end last year … and he could have just made a change,” Petke said. “But he gave me respect. He called me in the office and explained to me in a way that, at the end of the day, I could be (angry) I’m not playing, but look in the mirror and say, ‘He’s right.’ ”

In the second and final year of his contract, he is steadfast in the desire win the Red Bulls’ first MLS Cup.

“On average, I’ve been two, two and a half years with teams,” Backe said. “I love it here. I hope we get some results and build this franchise into one of the dominating teams in this league."

The 2011 season has been more of a challenge for Backe and the Red Bulls. The team has dipped below expectations as the Gold Cup, injuries and trades have slowed the team. Backe has had to juggle the lineup continually.

“Imagine living your whole life without being under pressure? I like it.”